Brophy Named Tournament MVP as Men's Volleyball Tournament Title; Set School and Conference Record for 21-Win Season

MISENHEIMER, N.C. – Led by 17 kills and a .474 hitting percentage from tournament MVP Caleb Brophy (Mission Viejo, CA), the Pfeiffer University men’s volleyball team captured their first-ever Conference Carolinas tournament title with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-21) sweep over the two-time defending champs Mount Olive College in front of 648 loud and raucous fans on Wednesday night. The Falcons, who win their third this year over the Trojans, set a new conference record for wins in a season finishing 21-6 overall while the Trojans complete 2012 at 17-14.

Brophy would start his MVP run with the game’s first kill of the night before a pair of Adam Miracle (Cincinnati, OH) kills and put down from John Nunns (Fayetteville, NC) helped the Trojans jump out to an early 4-1 lead. Brophy would help stifle the Mount Olive run twice before David Specian (Loxahatchee, FL) served up his only ace of the night to put the Falcons back on top 12-11. Going back-and-forth through the middle portion of set one, Brophy and Konstantin Weise (Berlin, GERMANY) pushed kills late as the Falcons grabbed a 25-23 set and 1-0 match lead.

In the middle stanza, a Lance Johnson (Harrisburg, PA) kill and two more by Brophy shot the hosts out to a 4-0 lead before a Miracle kill got the Trojans right back in it at 11-10. After a Michael McLaughlin (Aliquippa, PA) kill, Mount Olive would commit three-straight hitting errors calling a timeout down 15-10. Jack Tutty (Sydney, AUSTRALIA) and Miracle would again bring the Trojans back into the set as two with kills before late errors by the Falcons squared the set at 21-21. A Brophy kill and immediate ace helped the Pfeiffer to another 25-23 set win just one set away from the sweep.

Mount Olive again hung around in set three as another Miracle kill and Pfeiffer error put the visitors up 12-10. Two kills in a three-play span from Moore kept the Falcons around until two more miscues put the Trojans up 15-13. Moore and Weise contributed to Mount Olive’s final timeout of the night up 19-17 late in the final set. Johnson would put down another Pfeiffer kill in between the final two from Miracle but a solo block by Weise and block assist by Weise and McLaughlin on the final two points gave Pfeiffer their first-ever championship and record-breaking 21st win of the season.

Behind Brophy’s 17 kills, Moore finished with 11 while Johnson and Weise each hit over .400 in the win. Specian averaged 14 assists per set to finish with 42 on the night concluding with 1,019 on the year setting a new school-record. Miracle paced the Trojans with 12 while Metichecchia had 25 assists.

Moore and Specian join Brophy on the 2012 All-Tournament Team along with Metichecchia and Dan Arnold from Mount Olive. Limestone’s Scott Warren and Lees-McRae’s Jose Ribas round out this year’s squad.